Design Idea File 5: Choose an existing example of the client service project you’re preparing that you believe to be well-executed, and analyze it according to our readings up to this point: choose a segment of the reading and form it into a question for the purpose of analysis as I did with DD Ch. 1 above.
Question for Analysis:
How does the flier attempt to rhetorically meet the primary audience’s specific needs regarding their emotional state? (New or prospective students who don’t know exactly what they want to major in, or who don’t know how to achieve their goals, like becoming a teacher.)
The flier attempts to rhetorically meet the audience’s specific needs in a variety of ways. It provides three primary pieces of information: a summary of the program, potential career paths well suited to the degree, and skills which are honed in the course of the program.
The summary is accurate, but it’s very dense. While the information is very useful, it feels a little crowded on the page, and could serve to isolate or scare off potential students. This kind of information, about working through the Darden College, and the potential for TESL, is more germane to the kind of document we’ll be making: one for students who are already interested in the education program or have a little bit of experience at the school and can contextualize the information without being overloaded. However, it could be easily trimmed, for example, is the line about reciprocity really important?
The weight of the visual elements is very good, though. There’s a very stable reading order, and the eyes follow the information path in a reasonable manner. The document follows conventional arrangement of textual elements in-line with how we read (top to bottom, left to right).
However, I feel that the careers section is a little bit redundant, considering that the certification is for a teaching license: the end goal is to teach. I think what would be better is to use the skills portion or something like it, and flesh that out more. The visual of the ladders and lifting up plays a significant role, I feel, for education students. Every education student I’ve interacted with has mentioned their passion to uplift students and help make their lives better. If we’re trying to get people interested in the program, highlighting the benefits of being an educator will likely do more than listing potential careers, or earnings. I think using the skills section, or something like it, to list skills or traits which educators ought to have like kindness, passion, excitement for content and learning, etc. would be more beneficial. The goal of a flier like this should be, in my opinion, to excite a prospective student: the visual does just that. It gets the reader thinking about the upward mobility a good teacher can provide a student, but the rest of the document kind of falls flat on this goal.
The sans serif font that’s used doesn’t make anything stick remarkably well, and doesn’t help to make difficult information easier to parse, it just makes it more boring, which is the last thing you want in a promotional flier. The design in general is also very tame, which is understandable: we don’t want to reinvent the wheel here, but a bit more visual flair would be nice. It’s professional and clean, but a little bit too clean, and it’s uninspiring. In this way, it’s the opposite of what we should be doing for our students.
However, the purpose of our document is less to attract students, and more to help them navigate their way through their coming courses. I think a boring and less inspiring design makes sense for a document like this. The goal is not to retain the student with appealing visuals and the ideals of uplifting future students, but by offering a salient, and useful compass to help guide through their chosen program and see it through to the end with minimal confusion.